– If you live in the Houston or Chicago area, MEET ME THERE is playing near you next month. We’re screening at the Beta Theater in Houston on August 1 and 2, then hopping up to Chicago to screen at WIZARD WORLD CHICAGO. I will also be there. SO WILL BATISTA.

Please click through for the Best and Worst of WWE Raw for July 7, 2014.

Join The Discussion

Why is there always so much ROH bashing from Brandon? I love these articles but I don’t see why there is so much hostility. Considering that just about eveything good in WWE lately has come from ROH (not exclusively I know), I would think it would get a little more respect. As someone who is conected to the indy scene, I would think you would want to promote indy wrestling in general. Maybe I’m just an overly sensitive ROH supporter.

He’s not exactly *wrong* in his criticism of ROH, though. I don’t know who all listens to Steve Austin’s podcast, but he and Christopher Daniels discussed ROH recently. And it is kind of a spot-fest where everybody just has to get their moves in.

I’m not saying that’s *bad,* because that’s fun to watch sometimes. But maybe not all night every night.

Just because a lot of your favorite wrestlers were in one paticular company at a time, doesn’t mean you have to *like* said company. Just to look at one of your examples, I HATED that Del Rey was either just a manager, or wrestled the same few women every time, due to ROH not wanting to get a full women’s division going.

ROH? Oh you mean the place where no-selling even the most badass finishers is something that literally everyone on the roster does every single match? Oh, that place. Yeah, totally nothing wrong with ROH at all.

@The Small Package – Daniel Bryan’s last RoH match was in September 2009, Punk officially left in August 2005 (although he did make a one-off appearance in January 2006), Cesaro left in September 2011 and Rollins had his last match in September 2010.

I’m surprised they’re going to give that match away on TV– on *Smackdown* especially. It felt like a big deal when Russev and Reigns were the last two guys in that battle royal a few weeks ago. Now it’s just going to be another match on a show most people don’t watch. And there’s about a 5% chance of a clean finish.

I hope you guys are right, but I just can’t see what they’re going to do to further the story, short of Rusev taking a purposeful count-out loss, which I think hurts his mystique more than an actual hard-fought loss to Reigns would. At the same time, there’s no way golden boy Roman Reigns is going to lose, is there?

Not a very good episode, but it was redeemed by everything Bo did and everything Fandango said on commentary. I absolutely lost it when he claimed that Layla was backstage “crimping her hair,” and when the announcers rightfully called him out on the absurdity of that statement, he refused to back down. I like Fandango ten times more thanks to last night.

Maybe it was me just watching the preview of The Monday Night War last night (which was fun, if a tad sketchy on actual history) and it made me think…why do we have money matches on free (sort of) TV again?

Orton/Ambrose is good. But we just saw them on a nothing RAW. Cena/Rollins would have been much better…on a PPV/Network show. WWE has a lower card of nothing jobbers that are hardly used. What is WWE afraid of? Lower ratings? YOU HAVE NO COMPETITION.

There’s simply way too much content each week, and with that we have these matchups that repeat themselves over and over again. WWE really needs to rework these shows and still have great wrestling matches, but maybe not the major stars over and over and over again. Do the writers just notch down Del Rio/Ziggler each time, followed by a zap to the skull? Enough already.

What I want to see is some point in the future (not next week) Rollins goes out of his way to make sure Ambrose “isn’t there.” Asking around all night. have him quietly stalk Cena. Finally he gets his moment. (Make it during whenever.) He signals for a referee to come out……

It’s Ambrose in a striped shirt. We then get to watch Ambrose emote different ways of refusing to ring the bell for Rollins. GIF’s galore!

The Dust Brothers segment was typically excellent, but it didn’t really advance anything or give us any new information so I can understand if it slipped Brandon’s mind. All you can really say about it is “Well, that was wonderful as usual.” Not that that would have been bad but not exactly insightful or necessary.

Valid points, however… there should be a video of the amazing segment (I actually rewound it a couple times to marvel in it’s magnificence) so those that missed it or are new can see why we love it. Probably should talk about how that crowd probably would have given Dust Bros the adulation it certainly deserves right now. It would have been nice.

I actually thought the Orton/Ambrose match was the best match on RAW in awhile. I love Ambrose’s gimmick, but you have to wonder if he isn’t a bit crazy in real life e.g; I saw a TNA “tryout”(?), match that he was in, and other than wearing actual trunks, and a different name, he was doing the EXACT same character…so maybe he IS batshit.

Orton will never be my favorite wrestler, but when the guy has to pull an A+ match outta his ass, he always delivers.

I knew, I knew, as soon as I saw Bo run over Torito, I could picture the Gif, and you loving it Brandon. Bo said so much, by doing so little with that…make sense?

In real life Ambrose is just a goofy dude that loves wrestling. But for wrestling/kayfabe purposes, he’s ALWAYS played the bat shit crazy guy with never-ending vendettas. He basically built his career around this character so that’s why it’s his go-to, and that’s why he comes off so naturally wacko.

Bang your head against a wall, repeatedly, until you no longer think Sting is a viable option for anything other than a couple of nostalgia appearances to shill a video game and enter the WWE Hall of Fame. Then you can come back and rejoin the adult conversation.

@Carson Palmers Real Estate Agent that sounds like an awful idea but I will continue to hold a conversation in any place I see fit. also I see no reason why they couldn’t have a limited use of sting. give him one or two matches to get a few people over and send him out with taker

Last night’s Raw was weird. It felt like the individual segments were dragging and then all the sudden Brrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaappppppiiidddoooo~! it was over. But Cesaro, Bo, Bray and their dad were worth it. That and my 8 year old becoming a Dust Brothers fan. The Boy loves him some Stardust.

I don’t want to sound like Skip Bayless, but that is kinda true with the Wyatts. They are the polar opposite of Wade Barrett. They only win when the result is inconsequential but never win when it matters. Anytime titles are on the line the Wyatts transform into the crazy, hillbilly, cultist version of 3MB.

Again, before I comment I’ll preface this by saying I’m a very casual fan who watches Raw the next day so I can fast forward through a bunch. This week that happened A LOT. I love Brandon’s columns so I might just save myself some time and read this and not watch. Anyway…

– Kane sucks. He can’t even do the tombstone correctly after having about 15 years to get it right. Plus he looks goofy as fuck running or jogging.

– I didn’t watch any of the Divas stuff.

– Why is there never continuity in the rules? Some matches that have zero stipulations you can hit people with chairs, put them through tables and fight outside of the ring with no consequences. Other matches you get a 10 count immediately or your DQ’d for not breaking a hold. So Orton and Ambrose are outside for a few minutes, Dean is tossing chairs everywhere and then after God knows how long the ref starts a 10 count… WHA???

– Matches I’ve already seen a billion times (literally!) that I couldn’t care less about: Uso/Wyatts (although I did watch, skipped Ziggler/Del Rio and Kofi/Cesaro.

– Jericho adding “2014” to his Y2J trunks doesn’t make this 15 year old gimmick any more relevant. The WWE’s target audience was most likely in diapers when he debuted the whole Y2J thing.

– Bo Dallas is the best part of Raw every week for me.

– I know a lot of people give Cena crap for his same old handful of moves over and over again. But to me it’s getting pretty tiresome watching Reigns go spear, Superman punch, spear, Superman punch, repeat.

For all his faults, Lawler still seems like he’s not got an ounce of malice in him. Sure he likes them spingy young ladies, but as far as I can tell he’s quite happy to be the butt of the joke for it. He doesn’t smoke, drink or party, I’ve never heard rumours if him being on the juice, so even if I grow tired of him on commentary, I’d rather replace Cole 9 times out of 10.

Paige and AJ is intriguing. One ting i noticed is that this show had no less than 4 different diva storylines. Nikki being in Stephs doghouse, Layla and Summers hunting for Fandango, the Funcadactyl break up, as well as Paige and AJ’s tensions re. the championship. When was the last time that happened on a RAW?

All I have to say is how shocked and dismayed I am that Brandon has the exact opposite opinion of Jericho/Miz that I had. Miz’s fanmail promo was THE BEST and carrying his “not in the face” mentality over to the match was great, even if it is kind of an old trope but delusional wannabe movie star heel Miz is handily the best Miz I’ve ever seen because he’s always been that in real life. Jericho’s interaction with Wyatt actually moved things forward instead of us just getting another 3-on-1 gang attack. Most importantly, the Jericho/Miz match was BY FAR the best match of the night. I am officially on board with both of these guys after being overwhelmingly skeptical and apathetic about both of their returns to WWE TV. Especially Miz.

I dunno. I think I’m just sick of seeing a guy who peaked around 2002. But he just keeps popping up, unchallenged by wrestling fans who claim he keeps reinventing himself. Seriously, ask yourself, “was I jonesing for this dude a couple weeks ago?” Come on. But no hate in his game. Dude’s just cashing a check on simple fan’s nostalgia.

And again, Rob Van Dam is doing that job just fine. Why do we need TWO long snappers?

Randy Orton vs Dean Ambrose was perfectly paced, and this is like the first time I ever said anything about the “pace” of a match. The same way I feel when I started saying “technical” to describe a match. It’s like I’m evolving in the bizzaro world where Jerry Lawler lives.

Rosa and Eva Marie were teamed up with Natalya, Summer and Naomi in a handicap match against Nikki Bella. So they BOTH won (Eva got the pin though). It was the hardest I’ve ever booed in my life. Also, Rosa does this weird boob jiggle thing before she gets up on the apron when she enters. It’s weird. She’s about as bad as her titantron.

I was at the SmackDown taping last night and let me tell you, if you thought that this RAW was bad, wait ’til you see SmackDown. The only reason I’m going to enjoy this episode is because I was there. (And so was Bo Dallas and the Dust Bros, so not all is wrong with the world).

I hope the WWE writers don’t waste Rusev’s first loss on Cena. They will need Reigns to do something in between a Royal Rumble or Mania showdown vs. Brock/Cena. I would have Rusev battle Reigns a few times, even having Rusev beat Reigns by making him pass out from The Accolade. Reigns would eventually break the hold.

I’ve loved the idea of Ambrose stopping Rollings from cashing in, but they need to do it differently Rollings getting all the way to the ring. After Cena retains at Battleground they should have Orton take Cena out, but Rollings doesn’t come out because he’s so tired of Ambrose interfering.